84 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



obtained from uncompressed material, appear as lateral thickenings 



at the- points of strongest curvature of a test with a broad elliptical 



section. 



In 1896, Miller and Gurley 1 erected the genus Enchostoma for 



the same kind of phosphatic-calcareous, smooth, elongate, flexible 

 tubes with varying sections, citing a species from the 

 Chouteau group, and Girty has lately 2 figured as En- 

 chostoma sp. a form from the Wewoka formation of 



Torel- Oklahoma, that distinctly shows the lateral welts or " ribs." 



lella. At about the same time, the writer 8 referred the curved, 



Da- . . • 



gram- flattened, cuneiform bodies, known as Sphenothallus 



matic angustifolius Hall, to Conularia gracilis 

 cross 

 seccion Hall, describing their adhesion disks and growth stages. 



of tube, With the accumulation of more material it becomes increas- 



late al ingly clearer that while the relationship of Sphenothallus and 



thicken- Cunularia is close, both in general form and the phosphatic- 



(From calcareous substance of the test, it is necessary to keep the 



. Holm) tw0 distinct. We shall later show that Conularia 



gracilis forms in certain characters a connecting link between 



the two genera. 



We are now in a position to show that the bodies with adhesion 

 disks (Sphenothallus) are the bases of the tubular bodies which 

 often attain extreme length and are known as Serpulites. There 

 are several species described below, one of which ( S . gracilis, 

 pi. 28, figs. 6 and 7) exhibits chitinoid rods or setae back of the 

 aperture of the tube, such as would be found at the head of 

 chaetopodous worms. 



It is mainly for this reason that the oldest of the generic terms, 

 Serpulites, with S. longissimus Murchison, as defined by 

 Murchison, is preferable to all later terms, even if it would not 

 have the right of priority. Murchison's definition of the genus and 

 his figure of S. longissimus, as well as Salter's figure of 

 S. dispar (in Sedgwick and McCoy, British Palaeozoic Rocks 

 and Fossils, 1855, pi. iD, figs. 11 and 12), bring out very dis- 

 tinctly the characteristic features of the genus, notably the thick- 

 ened lateral margins and the transverse wrinkled upper and under 



1 Illinois State Mus. Nat. Hist. Bui. 11, p. 29. 

 2 U. S. Geol. Surv. Bui. 544. 1915. 



3 The Discovery of a Sessile Conularia. 15th Rep't State Geol. for 1895, 

 p. 701. 1897. 



